§2196.3. Primary health care grants and contracts

A. Grants and contracts shall be used only as specified and shall be awarded to provide direct or arrange access to primary and preventive services, referral to specialty and inpatient care, prescription drugs, ancillary services, health education, and case finding and outreach to bring people into the system. Funds for this program are to be targeted to primary and preventive care.

B. Funds for this program shall not be used to subsidize inpatient care.

C. Grants and contracts shall be awarded to local health care providers, or to new organizations where existing providers are unwilling or unable to participate, who demonstrate the capacity to provide an organized system of primary care. Eligible recipients include but are not limited to groups of physicians, primary health care centers, and hospital outpatient departments provided they meet the following criteria:

(1) Arrangements for services twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

(2) Full hospital privileges for all primary care physicians or arrangements to refer patients for inpatient hospital care and specialist services. Arrangements must be in writing or the provider must be able to demonstrate that patients are being accepted and treated.

(3) Provisions for follow-up care.

(4) Access to ancillary services including laboratory, pharmacy, and radiology.

(5) Linkage to the Women, Infants and Children Special Supplemental Food Program of the United States Child Nutrition Act of 1966, nutritional counseling, social, and other support services.

(6) Acceptance without limits of Medicaid and Medicare patients and uninsured persons, including public notice of appropriate sliding fee scales.

(7) A medical record system with arrangements for the transfer of records to the hospital and the specialist and their return to the primary care physician.

(8) Quality assurance mechanisms to evaluate the quality and appropriateness of patient care.

(9) Evidence of community-wide input into the design and provision of health services to be funded by the grant or contract.

Acts 1992, No. 418, §1.

{{NOTE: SEE R.S. 40:2196.7 - EFFECTIVE WHEN FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE.}}